As first touched upon by good ol’ John Chiv, the Eureka City Council is set to consider an ordinance that would criminalize people for not having their guns – which are already stored in their homes or businesses – under a further layer of security by locking them up. This ordinance is supposedly designed to reduce instances of gun theft.

Now, before we dive right into this heaping pile of horseshit, we’d like to go on record by first saying: Are Mills and the Eureka Council f***ing crazy? Who in their right mind thinks it’s a good idea to criminalize people who get things stolen from them?

You’d think that Mills and Co. would figure out there’s something seriously wrong with an ordinance that penalizes people for owning guns that get stolen from them more harshly than the people actually stealing the weapons could be.

Now, THC doesn’t necessarily care where you stand on the greater issue of gun control, and we aren’t going to dive into that huge debate at this time. The fact of the matter is, whether you think it’s a good idea for newborns to leave the emergency room with a complimentary pistol or that all guns should be tossed into the fiery depths of Mordor, there’s just no reasonable way to stand behind inflicting jail time on law-abiding citizens in order to prevent another sector of potentially violent criminals from perpetrating crimes against those same innocent people. It just boggles the mind.

We particularly enjoy this screenshot from the EPD’s official blog:

We’d like to point out that, a.) this is a bullshit poll on a bullshit blog that nobody reads, and that b.) there’s no way in hell the EPD can seriously be considering using this poll to influence the decision-making process. (Also, c.) just because a gun is locked up does not mean that it cannot be left unattended – these things are not mutually exclusive. Locks are not babysitters, EPD.)

Anywho, semantics aside, if Mills or the EPD actually tries to cite this poll as evidence of support (or even a lack thereof) for the ordiance, we are going to offer the guitar-slinging houseless advocate from the past Eureka Council meeting a record deal with the sole aim of bombarding Mills and the Council with an endless stream of slightly-out-of-tune music vilifying them for being asshats.

At the end of the day,why is Mills trying to shift the blame for violent crime and thefts onto people who have absolutely nothing to do with it? It’s plain ludicrous, and reflects very poorly on Mills and the EPD in general. Who, though they have their faults, are generally legitimately trying to make positive changes in the City of Eureka.

It’s a shame that Mills and the EPD even brought this forward, let alone gave it serious thought. THC strongly encourages you to let the Eureka City Council know that passing this particular gun ordinance is just plain unacceptable.

Yes, also, Eureka is looking at passing some pretty stupid ordinances regarding nudity. That has received attention elsewhere, so we won’t go into it too deeply. However, we will say, that should you choose to party naked in Eureka (which is the best way, in our opinion), just be sure not to do so lewdly. It’s in poor taste.

If the stores or houses that are burglazed would have securely locked up their weapons we would not see so many guns on the streets used (and stolen by) by thugs.
Not to mention the safety aspect of unattended guns sitting around in the house. Is it that hard to secure your guns in the house.

Are you people kidding? Chief Mills is actually proposing that the penalty for not locking up your gun in your own home should be greater than for the dirt-bag that breaks into your house and steals it. What happened to the meaning of the lock on your front door? There was actually a time that the police considered the people violating your home to be the criminals rather than the vice-versa. How does one recall a police chief?

Sure, the real criminals in Eureka are the tax paying, employed, citizens trying to protect their families not the dirt bag thieves that have taken over under Chief Mills watch. Thanks for encouraging the complete takeover of our community.

I don’t live in Eureka but the Chief should really be embarrassed by that poll. One would hope for better from Eureka’s chief law enforcement officer. The poll is really more in line with what we would expect from the planning department. We should expect a lot more than stupid from our police department.

They definitely used the old Delphi Method poll.
Interesting, also, how the ordinance and agenda meeting are already set to go, despite the fact that “other solutions” is in the lead and far ahead when tallied with the “leave them be”. 65% voted no way, 35% voted to rob the citizens.

Once again, it’s instructive to ask what, really, is THC so upset about?

a) It’s NOT attempts at gun control…they are down with …”THC doesn’t necessarily care where you stand on the greater issue of gun control, and we aren’t going to dive into that huge debate at this time.”
i) but…you just said this…”consider an ordinance that would criminalize people for not having their guns”

How do you regulate then? Is it that the regulations would “criminalize”? I honestly don’t understand.

b) The problem is that Big Brother (Chief Mills) is the one initiating this. “..why is Mills trying to shift the blame for violent crime and thefts onto people who have absolutely nothing to do with it?”

i) I think this is really where some of the passion comes from as this is a government regulation. It would be nice if THC would propose an alternative solution. I guess it would be let responsible gun owners be responsible themselves, but it would be nice to hear what the other side of the coin is.

In the end of course it’s not difficult to understand if you see THC through the lens of politics. Ravid NRA anti-gun control is the heart of the Republican platform and Reagan conservatism generally. So when THC says this…”THC doesn’t necessarily care where you stand on the greater issue of gun control” the “you” is critical.

THC would rather not discuss the greater topic of gun control (even though that is exactly what this post is about) b/c they know it’s a losing battle in a) a town that feels unsafe and b) a town that votes +25% Democratic. I don’t know if they (he/she) knows this consciously or not but they know it is better for their interests to ramp up the anti-government fever than to start to talk about any actual policies to actual problems.

In the end the answer to “What is THC so upset about?” the answer seems to be a) a wonderful and brave performance by Sarah Torres at the ECC* and b) that Chief Mills has a blog that no-one is reading.

Jon jonjonjon,
they are upset that if you get something stolen, its now your fault. What a nifty idea. Maybe we do that in other areas: if your assaulted, its your fault for being weak. If your car is stolen, its your fault for not having an alarm and LoJack. Stupid.

Typo. Should read “in the LOCKED garage”
There are laws against theft. There are harsher penalties against criminals who use a weapon during a crime.
Yet the revolving door keeps turning the criminals loose. Criminalizing the victim for $1000,00 fines sounds suspiciously criminal.

I have been told by more than one law enforcement officer to keep a loaded gun nearby at night because crime is totally out of control in Eureka and there’s nothing much they can do about it. Since the cops can’t protect us in our own homes we have a right to do it ourselves. Having to dig a gun out of a safe and then load it in the dark while some scumbag is raping your daughter just doesn’t seem right. Both my kids know where the gun is and how to use it. Suggesting that with four people coming and going every day that each of us should take out the gun load it when each of us arrives home for an hour and reverse the process every time we leave is just stupid. When the City starts doing their job then I’ll consider locking up my gun, until then burglars beware I am armed and ready.

Not saying the ordinance makes sense, but you comments don’t. If there’s one person in the house…..no problem. There was nothing said about unloading guns when you come or go. And you can still sleep with it, loaded, next to your bed.

My point was that it didn’t make sense to lock and unlock every time the house is entered. For example, the family leaves the house at 8:00, my wife returns at 9:30 and leaves again at 11:00. I come home for lunch at 12:00 and leave at 1:00, my daughter is home around 2:00 and heads to practice at 3:30. My son comes in at 4:00 and leaves at 4:30. We all are home around 6:00 and might go out to dinner at 7:00. That’s a ton of wear and tear on a gun safe and a lot of wasted time. The lock on my front door should be enough. Homes with small children might also be an exception.

Of course I’m exaggerating a little but not much. Some might say we don’t really need access at all times either. They would probably be correct too…..right up until they aren’t.

“Having to dig a gun out of a safe and then load it in the dark while some scumbag is raping your daughter just doesn’t seem right.”

“Of course I’m exaggerating a little but not much.”

Wow. To go through life with that fear front and center. I could not image what that does. Seriously.

Seriously – I haven’t done this, but have you ever looked at the statistics for violent crime against households in the UK where there are no guns? I am sincerely saddened that this heinous crime is even on your day-to-day radar.

Violent crime has skyrocketed in Europe, especially in Sweden. Australia is in a gun buying panic, due to their higher violence rate, too.
You are under the impression that guns are violent instead of the reality that guns stop violence. The U.K. Want their guns back just as much as the Aussies & Swedes do. Switzerland is still doing great, no crimes, because it’s mandatory to have a gun.
Usually I just roll my eyes and ignore your posts, but you ate it big time with your callous bullying of a person who knows its not safe to be without a weapon. You have no idea what that person has been through or is being threatened by. Not all criminals carry roses, some carry machetes & matches.

Perhaps it is not just a matter of the gun ordnance itself but rather the pattern of how the City of Eureka and Chief Mills perform in a crisis that really has everyone in a stir.

In the past two years the city (with Chief Mills in the lead) has shown a tendency to put forward badly thought-through solutions to problems only to then have to reverse themselves when they find out it isn’t possible to do or the public won’t put up with it.

The history of making pronouncements to the homeless (“You got two weeks to pack or else”) only to back off from them comes to mind as an example.

In short, the City of Eureka in general, and Chief Mills in particular, are in over their heads. When that happens and the problems becomes too big to solve, the tendency for anyone is to go ahead and do what you think you can accomplish… just to do “something.”

Thus we now have nude GMOB’s stealing shopping carts being the focus of our attention.

As I have said elsewhere… I’m not against Chief Mills. I hope he succeeds in making Eureka a better place. I just don’t think he’s on the right track. Whether it is because of his own short comings, the short comings of the EPD or the short comings of the staff of the City of Eureka… I don’t know.

I was deftly trying to finagle the discussion towards my own extreme leftest view.

Actually, I was trying to manipulate the conversation toward something useful:

That the City of Eureka’s government, for whatever reason, is becoming more dysfunctional everyday. It’s not a matter of “How Dare You Come for My Guns!” or “Why Are You Blaming the Victims for the Crimes?” It’s a matter of an entire city’s administration being unable to cope with the problems they face and coming up with silly things to do just to be doing them.

” It’s a matter of an entire city’s administration being unable to cope with the problems they face and coming up with silly things to do just to be doing them.”

While we would include our County government in the mix as well, we couldn’t possibly agree with you more. Despite Jon-Jon’s unhealthy paranoia about a right-wing conspiracy that would rival Agenda 21 you are much more on target as to why we bother with this blog in the first place.

We’re pretty sure that Mike’s is all the rage in liberal circles too. It’s the totally non-denominational choice of all persons with good taste! We’re concerned though. We hope you’re not suggesting feeding Mike’s to the inmates at the shelter? We haven’t gotten any of our furry friends high since high school and it was a pretty crappy thing to do even then. Pretty darn funny, but crappy nonetheless. Besides we wouldn’t want to share anyway.

“That the City of Eureka’s government, for whatever reason, is becoming more dysfunctional everyday.”

Really? by what measure? Are they responsible for the houseless or the crime rate? It seems to me this CC is attempting to tackle real problems head on. They are not, literally, pushing the undesirables down the road then focusing on things that will only continue to institutionalize our society as two-tiered – those with property and those without (by which I’m focusing on the right’s goal of turning us into Disneyland with us as their below living wage workers)

If you do start to blame government for our woes, then yes, you might want to take a good look at yourself right now.

Are you wearing a hard white plastic uniform? Are you a terrible shot with a blaster?

How did you know about my hard white plastic uniform and my inability to hit anything with my blaster? Just the other day I could have sworn I had found some droids I was looking for but this kindly old man told me they weren’t. I like that guy.

I’m not blaming Government. I’m attempting to get to the bottom of the fact that the City of Eureka is doing little of a positive nature to deal with the problems it has been saddled with. You must see that too, since you’ve taken to calling yourself “LMOB” lately; a not too subtle dig at the stir Chief Mills attempted with his crusade against GMOB’s.

The City of Eureka did not create the homeless. Nor did the City create the gangs. Nor the drug violence. Your statement that I am unfairly holding the City responsible is not only wrong, but misses my point.

There are dysfunctional governments and functional governments, just as there are dysfunctional and functional businesses, dysfunctional and functional families and dysfunctional and functional persons. The City of Eureka behaves like a dysfunctional institution.

That doesn’t mean all parts of the City do not function correctly. There are many hardworking people and managers who strive daily to make what they do work. But the leadership of the City is another matter. They have no unified direction, they don’t properly research before acting (i.e.: Looking Before Leaping) and they gladly go after symptoms rather than make the effort to understand and treat the disease.

Truly Jon, I have not yet drunk deeply from the cup of Koolaid THC is offering.

MOLA42, Here at THC Headquarters we take great umbrage at your attempt to equate Mike’s Hard Cider with Kool-Aid. They are absolutely nothing alike and we humbly request that you refrain from further derogatory comparisons with our official libation. We’re hoping for an official sponsorship from Mike’s if we keep unabashedly plugging them and don’t want you to screw us up.

Meanwhile your analysis of the dysfunction that permeates Eureka government is once again spot on. While we agree that there are many hard working folks at city hall we do feel that the problem extends well beyond the elected dimwits and fully embraces the City Manager as well as many department heads. In short, the captains and crew leadership compliment each other perfectly.

Cuz and MOLA:“they are upset that if you get something stolen, its now your fault.”

This isn’t the whole story is it? It’s not your fault for getting your gun stolen. If that was the end of the story, it would be as ridiculous as that statement makes it seem. The story ended when the someone who was not a responsible owner of a hazardous or dangerous item to others did not act responsibly and a crime followed. This crime could possibly have resulted in death. Or, from a police association perspective possibly resulting in an officer being shot.

The end of the story is the stolen item that the irresponsible owner had stolen now is a serious hazard to health and safety to the public (and as Chief Mills undoubtedly understands – to his officers).

Cars can be dangerous – we license them and we mandated car owners to have liability insurance. Expecting an across-the-board behavior for a consumer item is very common in our society. Why can’t we have controls or regulations on this particular item?

There is an obvious need for this in Eureka. Chief Mills isn’t advocating for this ordinance because he is, a “gun grabber”.

Of the conservative holy political trinity Guns, gays, and God, only guns remains as a potentially winning wedge issue locally and THC is using it here. I hope the Eureka’s “safety” contingent can see this safety issue through non-partisan eyes and use their better judgment. My guess is they won’t and on this issue Chief Mills will have lost his loudest supporters.

We already have the world’s highest percentage of prisoners. From the Google…“in October 2013, the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population. While the United States represents about 4.4 percent of the world’s population, it houses around 22 percent of the world’s prisoners.”

I don’t think being lackadaisical on crime is our problem. Our problems seem deeper.
This map of incarceration rate per 100,000 might give us one hint.

Lib man, the percentage of non-criminals locked up in prison is horrendous. The people stood up and demanded for them to be released, and real criminals jailed. A criminal is a person who literally hurt another. Robbery, assault, murder… Not, I repeat, NOT, smoking or selling herbs.
No victim, no crime, no crime, no criminal. Nullify.
You, on the other hand, want to criminalize everyone, including the ones who pay the extortion taxes that pay for your welfare check so you can sit and blame everyone but your own “ideals”. You even blame our founding fathers for your own missed opportunities. Its your life.

LMOB,
Holy Shit! On what planet is leaving things locked INSIDE your house being irresponsible? You might have a point if people were leaving guns and shit on their front porches, or in the back of their 1977 pickups for anybody to swipe, but that rule was for when people BROKE INTO YOUR HOUSE AND STOLE YOUR SHIT!.

I like how you framed that one, LJ. called it irresponsible behavior with a hazardous item. Pretty sneaky. when you say that, i’m with you until i find out what your talking about is just a normal person assuming their shit’s safe in their house.

I understand why you want to muddy the waters tho: Because its a stupid idea.

Why not lock up the assholes doing the stealing in the first place instead of blaming the victim? It’s the same ones over and over and over, at least from what i seen on lost coast.

I think we are, no? If not, it’s not b/c of a lack of being illegal, a lack of trying, or a lack of agreement left and right.

In those darn circles of the pc police, people are trying to rename “accidents” “collisions”. Have you heard that? The reason is a collision isn’t just an “accident” for whatever reason, more likely there is a real problem behind the collision. It might be human (texting, drunk, tired), it may be the conditions fault (weather, poorly designed intersection), it may be a technical glitch, etc. ad infinitum.

So yes, no disagreement that the responsibility for the crime, whichever she commits, is owned by the criminal. However, we as a society can ALSO take action if there is a need. In this case there is a need as Chief Mills, the non-gun grabber, might understand.

Now we haven’t yet heard the 2nd Amendment defense, but you know they are after our freedoms is coming. And take a look of the emotionalism displayed above. Daughter being raped? Some analogy to women being raped, “f***ing crazy”, etc.

This is cut and dry. It’s about being anti gun control mixed in with a little anti-government which happens to have a great deal of overlap with the good anti-authority folks on the left.

Jon lib man, you think you’re clever? I’m sure a smart intelligent person like yourself could google “CRIMES” (knife, assault, rape, robbery, brick, machete,). Try it sometime. The CRIME is no longer stopped by the citizens and has skyrocketed.
There is no such thing as “gun violence”. PEOPLE violence, yes. Guns are only tools, like knives, only noisier. (Which is a relief in a crowded subway says those in the front of the line with their backs turned to the slaughter going on behind them).

Only the gun control freaks consider guns as “violent crimes”. Those with true sincerity in the safety of all, prefer to protect citizens from all violent crimes, especially those against women and children. Speaking of which, the FBI will be reporting on child trafficking in their violent crime reports next year or so. Please notice how they correctly list all violent crimes, instead of indoctrinating the masses that all violent crimes are “gun violence” like propaganda does. https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2015/september/latest-crime-stats-released/latest-crime-stats-released

Sweden is the rape capital of the world, followed closely by Africa, Denmark, and the rest of the area. Rape is a VIOLENT crime.
Knivings have increased dramatically in the UK, Austrailia, and other “gun free zones”. Stabbing is a VIOLENT crime.
USA crime is at its lowest since the 70’s and gun ownership, especially among women, is at its highest.
Labeling all violent crimes as gun violence is immature and irresponsible, especially when used in a scheme to disarm women.
Child trafficking is way up, also a VIOLENT crime.
Larceny is still the number one VIOLENT crime in the USA.
The FBI has data that might help you and others like you, to differentiate.

“I’m attempting to get to the bottom of the fact that the City of Eureka is doing little of a positive nature to deal with the problems it has been saddled with.”

What would you have it do? What can you do to help (either here or in Fortuna)?

We know what the THC/Arkleyfest answer is. A lot of times what they want is aligned with Chief Mills’ police state. In this one particular case, it hit upon a sacred cow of the right wing movement and we all witnessed the result.

In Arcata an attempt to have property owners pay for services was defeated.

“The City of Eureka behaves like a dysfunctional institution.”

I would argue that is by design (please see Republicans in Washington as a reference). Having the common wisdom of an age being against governing has its effects.

On Wednesday, in Arcata THC “won” on THE issue of our time. Those with wealth and power like wealth and power and don’t want to waste any more of it on others. On an individual level, no probs. Sadly our city, state and national government(s) no longer can function without a will, from those governed, to govern. The wealthy and powerful like THC’s Mom have trained us that we shouldn’t govern ourselves, they’ve got this.

I would argue both consciously and not, THC is tapped into this mentality. Although they’d rather not have his support, it is no coincidence that Rob Arkley agrees with them. I’d also wager a case of Bob’s Hard Whiskey (I’m not a drinker – apologies if that isn’t alcoholically-correct) that the supervisor who has given THC a heads up from time to time is Rex Bohn.

“They have no unified direction.”

That’s the same argument the left has against President Obama. That direction has to come from we the people, it should not come from our elected officials. Especially from a Council. No doubt we need good people like Linda, Natalie and Kim to fight for us, but their strength to lead comes from us. How is that going from the perspective activist blogs from both the left and right?

“Truly Jon, I have not yet drunk deeply from the cup of Koolaid THC is offering.”

Duh! Lookit, I have a great deal of respect for what you do as an anon blogger. You try to connect worlds that might not otherwise connect while standing up for what you believe. I think we used to call this “independent thinking”. Happy Friday and may the force be with you.